Robust network, healthy patient. How do the Extreme solutions support Gabos Medical Center?

12 January 2021

Every medical facility is like a living organism. A closed system of interconnected vessels which can be destabilized with a slightest disturbance of its subtle homeostasis. To maintain full control of all operations, healthcare sector requires a reliable network infrastructure. Let’s see how modern network technologies from Extreme are utilized at the Gabos Medical Center!

More than 20 consulting offices covering various medical specializations, such as cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology, trauma and othopaedic clinic or obstetrics and gynecology clinic. Advanced lab testing, cutting-edge treatment methods, progressive regeneration therapies. Operating rooms and recovery rooms on site. A state-of-the-art medical equipment. A modern and individualistic take on patient treatment is definitely in the DNA of Gabos Medical Center in southern Poland.

Due to the wide range of medical services including narrow specializations such as tick-borne diseases, vascular afflictions or urotherapy in children, as well as an excellent location in Piekary Śląskie (near the A1 highway, just a 30 minutes’ drive from the Katowice-Muchowiec Airport), the center treats patients from all over the country. Whether we come from Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Katowice, Poznań, Gdańsk or any other city, one can always count on a superb medical care at Gabos Medical Center.

Of course, many of such innovative treatment methods wouldn’t be available without modern technical solutions and IT systems. Let’s examine the specific technologies behind the day-to-day operations at Gabos Medical Center!

The synergy

Patient care is only the visible tip of the entire iceberg of processes and operations performed at every modern clinic or hospital. Maintaining a good synergy of medical expertise and proper management is critical for the functioning of any facility. Gabos Medical Center achieves this synergy by utilizing the WMS Mediqus system.

The Wide Medical Solution Mediqus is a proprietary HIS-class system that allows us to control every single aspect of the Center’s operations, starting from the electronic registration and day-to-day contact with our patients, through medical documentation management, safe data exchange with external laboratories, hospital equipment control, and drugs distribution, up to administration functions such as payment processing, HR & payroll or financial & accounting system. It’s all overlaid with a SAS system which analyzes our operations and creates predictions for the medical procedures.

Grzegorz Siwiec, President of the Management Board, Gabos Medical Center

Additionally, the facility in Piekary Śląskie has begun a pilot implementation of an R&D project developed by Gabos Software LLC, supplied with EU subsidy. It’s an advanced medical communicator called MOSCATI. The solution is meant to enhance the mobility of the center’s staff and support the patient care by allowing safe and easy access to medical documentation, as well as monitoring and keeping a meticulous record of actions. The location aspect plays a critical role in this case.

Smartphone is a primary tool of the trade for our employees, so in order to improve the internal communication, we have covered the entire building with beacons. A nurse needs to know which doctor is available at the exact moment and which one won’t be for the next few hours since he’s in the middle of surgery. Patients calling for help may immediately state the nature of their emergency, allowing the staff to react accordingly.

Grzegorz Siwiec, President of the Management Board, Gabos Medical Center

By following the medical plans and recommendations, the communicator helps the Center’s personnel decide what action should be taken at any given point of time, e.g. administer medicine or tend to bedsores. This solution also enables quick reaction to tests results – upon registering alarming results, the attending physician receives an automatic notification.

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Diagnosing the needs

The proper functioning of both WMS Mediqus and the MOSCATI communicator relies on a steady data flow. An efficient communication between IoT devices, such as ultrasound scanner or cameras recording the surgical procedures, should also be taken into consideration. Many of the functionalities of both solutions wouldn’t be available without a properly functioning wireless network. The planned solution needed to address a series of challenges in regards to data security, access control, management and analytics.

The additional challenge was to ensure a fast, stable, and reliable Wi-Fi for guests. It’s a crucial component of the entire patient experience, especially for those patients recovering at the Center’s hospital wing. In spite of appearances, it wasn’t smooth sailing – when designing IT infrastructure for medical facilities, engineers not only need to be careful to separate the guest networks from the critical medical and administration traffic, but also have to consider special wall structures for imaging devices which may hinder the electromagnetic wave propagation.

To address all of the mentioned problems and challenges, Extreme wireless solutions came to the Center’s aid.

As far the network infrastructure is concerned, Extreme Networks was our first choice right from the very beginning. We had a lot of trust for Extreme’s products and technologies due to some prior experience with different projects. At the design stage we worked hand-in-hand with Extreme’s engineers to create a laboratory and see how does the system perform under the operating conditions. As it turned out, the planned solution matched our needs perfectly and that is why we decided to implement it right off the bat.

Grzegorz Siwiec, President of the Management Board, Gabos Medical Center

A wireless care

The IT infrastructure at the Gabos Medical Center consists of two main areas: a separated wireless network enabling day-to-day medical and administration operations, as well as a guest Wi-Fi which allows patients to access the Internet and communicate with the hospital staff.

In order to build the wireless solution, the client decided to use Extreme Wireless controllers and access points. The Wi-Fi part consists of two interchangeable WLAN controllers working in the High Availability mode, so that the network will not shut down in case of one of them breaks down.

Obviously, no Wi-Fi network can work without access points. After having analyzed the range requirements and the floor layout of the building we advised on the proper number of devices. We intentionally proposed a few different AP models to prove that the network built on Extreme solutions works smoothly and can be managed in a single environment, using both newer and older access points.

Adam Minowski, Systems Engineer, Extreme Networks

The entire wireless solution is governed by the Extreme Management Center which consists of three functional modules:

Extreme Management – wired and wireless management module which also monitors the entire IT environment, maintains the up-to-date device configuration backups, and operates the alarms.
Extreme Control – this module oversees the network access security. It’s a fully functional NAC class system embedded in the Extreme Management Center which supports the “captive portal” for guests and allows authentication of the hospital’s staff, among other things.
Extreme Analytics – the module solely responsible for collecting, analyzing, and visually presenting statistics of the entire network traffic. With its help we can observe not only how much data the user has sent or received, but also break it down by individual apps. What’s more, since it allows us to analyze the response time from the network and each app, local administrator can get insight into the quality of service as seen by the user.

Robust network, healthy patient

All things considered, how can you tell that the Wi-Fi works well? You’ll know it because… you tend to forget about it.

The Extreme solution allows us to easily manage all aspects of the wireless network, without worrying about the security of very sensitive data that we’re processing. Thanks to the centralized management and separation of external devices at the network level, the IT team is able to track all traffic within the infrastructure at the push of a button. Both our patients and employees enjoy a high quality Wi-Fi access, right after walking in. The network is trouble-free to such extent that we are reminded of its existence only when the Extreme engineers call us up. Thanks to this we can focus on what is really important for us: our patients and their wellbeing.

Grzegorz Siwiec, President of the Management Board, Gabos Medical Center

Gabos Software & Extreme Networks – a healthy cooperation

Gabos Medical Center is not the only one example of a fruitful cooperation between Extreme Networks and WASKO Corporate Group, the owner of the facility in Piekary Śląskie. The Group’s other venture, Gabos Software, is a leading supplier of IT & communications infrastructure solutions for the healthcare industry in Poland.

The most important mission we set out to accomplish when deploying new IT projects is to provide optimal solutions that respond to the needs of our customers and grant them a competitive edge. The satisfaction of our customers lies at the very foundation of all our operations.

Marcin Kucharski, Director of the Sales Department, Gabos Software

Gabos Software develops and manufactures software for medical facilities, offering both ready-made and custom solutions for hospitals, medical centers, and private clinics. In the past two years, the company has completed a number of EU-cofinanced infrastructure projects for purchasing software and medical equipment in Polish hospitals and clinics. In 2020 Gabos Software began to support the command systems of the Polish emergency medical services.

Acting as an integrator, Gabos Software regularly utilizes Extreme solutions in its networking projects.

Working with Extreme opens up lots of possibilities for us, from building relations with our clients to acquiring and passing on invaluable technical knowledge to our engineers and IT administrators. The team of engineers dedicated to each project carries out the tasks set out by the client. What’s more, our mutual support translates directly into increased sales. Our cooperation is aimed entirely at supporting the development and innovation within the medical sector through new technologies, for the benefit of the Polish healthcare system.

Marcin Kucharski, Director of the Sales Department, Gabos Software

On one hand, the Medical Center in Piekary Śląskie makes up an important element of WASKO Corporate Group’s investment portfolio, but on the other hand – it provides a test field for all the latest digital technologies for the healthcare industry in Poland. We are extremely proud to be part of such multifaceted cooperation with a company whose products and solutions help saving lives of millions of Polish people.

Marcin Laskowski, Country Manager, Extreme Networks Poland